Internet and social media communication skills: addressing the needs of LLP project teams

The effective use of Internet and social media tools and their embeddedness in a communication strategy are becoming fundamental to the success of cross-border cooperation projects, such as those subsidised by the Lifelong Learning Programme (LLP) of the European Commission. This paper reports on the results of a Europe-wide survey on skills needed by members of LLP projects in order to communicate their project results and engage with the target audience.
The results of the survey show trends in the use of social media based digital communication strategies, as well as areas in which skills need to be developed. They also allow us to identify digital communication opportunities that are of interest in the context of dissemination of project results, despite the fact that little attention is drawn to them by survey respondents. We discuss how the findings of the needs analysis have been used in the design of the training components (materials and courses, face-to-face and online). We conclude with some priority activities that we believe are needed at policy-making level, to allow project results to increase their visibility and impact.